VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
“To support people who are facing problems with jobs, we have raised the maximum unemployment benefits to 4,900 roubles per month and provided for a number of measures to help families who find it difficult to meet mortgage payments. I will also add that people who have lost jobs or had their wages considerably reduced because of layoffs will be allowed to delay interest payments on mortgages or the principal debt if the time has come to pay off loans.”
“You are aware that we have cut foreign labour immigration as a forced and temporary measure. We are reducing the original quota declared by the regions by half. Let me stress that this move is prompted by labour issues inside the Russian Federation. I hope you will understand the rationale behind the decision. At the end of the day we are all interested in a civilised labour migration policy.”
"We should protect the Russian personnel by cutting regional employment quotas for guest workers. It will be a temporary measure, considering Russia's long-term interest in workforce inflow. Today, however, we cannot offer foreigners as many jobs as before. This measure requires urgently drafting a relevant Government resolution."
"Whatever we do should concentrate on man. We must focus attention on helping honest workers who coped with their housing and other problems as best they could but are now in dire straits through no fault of theirs.”
"We would step up labour policies that would necessitate considerable allocations and demand target programmes. We should law away up to 50 billion roubles for the purpose. These, I stress, should be extra allocations apart from those already made to fund employment services in Russia's constituent entities. Such extra funding demands amending the law On Employment and the federal budget."
“The main thing is to ensure stable revenues for the pension system for the long term, which is why we plan to reform it. In 2010, we will reassess the pension rights of those Russian citizens who retired in the Soviet period. They will get a 10% increase plus a 1% increase per each working year since 1991.”
“In short, we will do our best, and I am confident that we will ensure sufficient pensions for those Russians who attain the retirement age in 2010. We will ensure that their pensions will be equivalent to 40% of the reference wage. This is fully in keeping with global and European standards as stipulated by the International Labour Organisation.”
“Prices and tariffs are growing too, but when I said pensions would grow 12% next year, I meant growth minus inflation. Of course, our pensions are not sufficient, they are small, but they are still growing faster than inflation. We will try to keep up the pace.”
“Therefore, we will take additional measures next year to raise pensions. They will be raised three times - the basic pension twice and the non-funded pension once. If inflation grows too fast, we will increase the non-funded pension twice. On the whole, we plan to raise pensions by approximately 34% next year.”
“I believe that the use of maternity capital in the amounts planned to begin on January 1, 2010 may be moved to early 2009 in view of the financial problems in the world and in this country, so as to allow the families and mothers to use this money to pay off their mortgages.”
“I believe people should react accordingly because, under current legislation, the mayors of municipal entities, including such cities as Nizhny Novgorod, are elected through universal suffrage by secret ballot. Such elections involve the populations of their territories. Municipal leaders would feel the people's reaction during subsequent elections, unless they respond to their concerns.”
“By the end of 2009, the average social pension should not be below the pensioners' subsistence level. In 2010, the average labour pension will grow by more than 50% compared with this year. This will be achieved through, among other things, a more reasonable attitude to the rights of those who worked and earned pensions in the Soviet period. After working for 30 years, those who begin building their pensions after 2010 may count on receiving no less than 40% of their salaries, from which deductions will be made. This is close to international standards.”
“I consider it necessary to increase from January 1, 2009 the maximum monthly unemployment benefit by 1,500 roubles, in addition to the 8.5% indexation of the benefit envisaged in the budget, which will result in a maximum monthly benefit of 4,900 roubles. We will watch the situation and introduce changes if necessary.”
"I'd like to refer to a draft law we must examine that will raise pensions. The law provides for a base pension increase starting from March 1 of next year by 8.7%, and from December 1 to 2,460 roubles a month, that is, by another 26.15%. All in all, we plan an increase of 37%."
"We are introducing insurance principles into the pension system and we are increasing the insurance premium to 26%. These insurance premiums will be deduced from wages under 415,000 roubles. All the people whose salaries are above that sum will not be entitled to insurance pensions. Those with salaries below that sum will have insurance pensions, those who have higher salaries will not. Why? The whole purpose is that we don't want to see people with smaller incomes pay for the pensions of people who earn big salaries. But the citizens with high salaries, 400,000 roubles plus, the figure subject to be adjusted every year, will be able to make additional savings towards their pensions voluntarily through the mechanism of the pension funds that has been created."
"Beginning from 2010 we have the following plans. First, all the pension rights acquired prior to 2002 will be raised by 10%. As someone who deals with these problems you surely know that the most vulnerable group of pensioners are the people who acquired their pension rights in the Soviet times. So everyone who earned his seniority before 1991 will have their pre-2002 pensions raised by 10% with an extra 1% added for every year of seniority. Those who will retire on pension since 2010 will get pensions amounting to 40% of their wages if they have a length of service of 30 years, and the 40% of the wage must fall on the period when insurance premiums were paid."
"We plan two increases of the basic part of the pension in 2009, in March and in early December. The basic part of the pension is to increase by 37.1% across the board. The ensured part of the pension will be raised by 15.5-16% as of April 1. Under the law, if inflation exceeds the target we will raise the ensured part again. So at the end of 2009 the social pension will not be less than the pensioner's living minimum."
"Another area of work is concerned with care for the older generation, or war veterans and pensioners. We have spent months, and, to be honest, even years, discussing a model of the pension scheme. The decisions we are going to make are hard ones, requiring considerable budget resources. They must have an effect in the shorter, medium and longer terms and even over a greater perspective, until 2050, to make the reform stand its ground and retain its integrity. We also need to solve the problem of re-calculating the Soviet-era work record of pensioners on a fairer basis in order to give them higher pensions, because most of them are unable to fend for themselves now. The proposal to index pensioner's rights acquired before 2002 by 10%, plus 1% for each year of the so-called Soviet-era work record appears to be optimal."
"From now on, returns on pension's savings must outpace inflation. I am referring to the interest-earning capacity of the money that is invested in pension funds. As a result, the average size of the labour pension in 2010 will almost double compared with the 2008 current level. Incidentally, the labour pension - an old-age pension - is to grow even further. By 2020, its average size will reach three times the pensioner's subsistence level."
"As a result, towards the end of 2009, the average social welfare pension ought not to be below the pensioner's subsistence level. From January 1, 2010, the pension rights acquired before 2002 will be indexed by an additional 10%, plus 1% in additional indexation for each year of work recorded before 1991. That is to say, we will begin addressing a problem which has been discussed so much. I mean an equitable estimate of people's work contribution during the Soviet period. Today, their pension levels are unacceptably low."
